Families in search of water: in pictures

Saturday 22nd March 2014 is World Water Day. Photographer Mustafah
Abdulaziz travelled to Pakistan with WaterAid
as part of a larger project looking at water.

In Sindh province, Pakistan, water and its availability dictates the rhythm of
daily life. People of the remote coastal areas of Thatta experience floods
in the rainy season and drought in the dry season, with severe implications
for health but also livelihoods: fishermen are without fish to catch;
farmers are unable to sustain their crops or livestock. By contrast, in the
desert plains of Tharparkar, families must migrate every three years in
search of groundwater, which is not only extremely limited but also
contaminated with high levels of fluoride, leading to bone abnormalities or
skeletal damage. Women, for whom the responsibility of collecting water is
part of their household duties, spend on average four to six hours a day
trekking to reach unprotected wells. On summer days temperatures hover
around 48 to 50 degrees Celsius (118 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit) and the
falling water table means that water must sometimes be hauled from a depth
of 150 to 200 feet. “Women fall unconscious on their way to these dug
wells,” said Marvi Bheel, 45, a local resident in Tharparkar.